Sir Billy Connolly's two big anniversaries: his 80th birthday and ten years with Castle Fine Art!
There are two big reasons to celebrate today. The first is that one of our most popular artists, and one of the world’s greatest entertainers, Sir Billy Connolly celebrates his 80th birthday; the second is that it’s the tenth anniversary of him being represented by Castle Fine Art with his initial Born on a Rainy Day collection.
Read on to find out more about Billy’s journey as an artist and buy from his diverse collection here.
Free Flight- A Series of 365 Unique Prints
Billy Connolly
Born on a Rainy Day, Autumn 2022 | Framed Set of Six
Billy Connolly
Scotty Poser XIX - XXIV | Framed Set of Six
Billy Connolly
Windswept & Interesting (Unframed set of 4)
Billy Connolly
Artistic beginnings...
Billy’s career as an artist began on a wet day whilst he was on tour in Canada. Bored, he picked up paper and pens in a Montreal art store after he’d tired of looking at the animals in the window of a local pet shop. “I’d never drawn in my life until this point, but I just started drawing weird islands and carried on drawing. I asked my wife (the psychologist, writer and performer Dr Pamela Stephenson-Connolly) to tell me if they were getting better and she said ‘definitely’.”
So his manager sent Billy’s drawings in his now trademark style of stripey elements drawn with a fine, black pen, to us at Castle Fine Art. We subsequently his hugely popular Born on a Rainy Day collection in 2012, and the rest is history.
His initial black-and-white drawings, which included works such as ‘Scottish Lion (Extinct)’, ‘Pink Tie and Hanky’ and ‘Blue Angel’, have now developed into a witty, vibrant and colourful collection of limited edition artworks, from giclées to sculptures, to a massive sculpture of his work showing a Glasgow welder at work, ‘And on Monday, God Made the World’.
Featured art: GoZunder Fish, limited edition giclée on paper, £1,250.
And now...
Billy is now working on new pieces at his Florida home but came to the UK earlier this year to launch new works from his Born on A Rainy Day collection, much to the delight of collectors who were invited to meet him at Castle Fine Art galleries.
He’s still delighted at the response to his work. “The fact that other people like it and want to live with it in their homes blows me sideways. To have somebody who wants a part of your mind in their life - I thought my wife had been the only one to fall for that, but it turns out that she's not alone,” he says.
To celebrate his birthday, earlier this month we released 'Free Flight Variations', a series of 365 prints of a man with colourful balloons, where every one is as original as Billy himself.
Billy is a musician, comedian and actor, and we at Castle Fine Art are delighted that he now brings all of those experiences into his art, which we are incredibly proud to represent. Collectors tell us how much pleasure and fun Billy’s pieces bring into their lives, and we wish him a very happy birthday and many more years of bringing his unique art into our homes.
Above: Billy unveiled his sculpture 'And on Monday, God Made the World' at our Glasgow gallery in 2021; it was the first of his works to be made into a three-dimensional piece.
Billy has a great relationship with his collectors, and earlier this year, we asked them to send us pictures of his art in their homes. He talks about them in this video and he chooses his favourite!
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